MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Rafa Nadal has drawn inside two wins of a record twenty first Grand Slam title, claiming a five-set thriller towards Denis Shapovalov to grind into the Australian Open semi-finals on Tuesday.
On a steamy afternoon at Rod Laver Arena, the warrior Spaniard suffered an enormous scare as Shapovalov roared again from two units down earlier than bowing out 6-3 6-4 4-6 3-6 6-3 after 4 taxing hours.
After dropping the fourth set, Nadal marshalled his sources off court docket with a medical time-out then returned to break Shapovalov within the second sport to wrest again the momentum.
Channelling the expertise of 20 Grand Slam titles, Nadal stored the Canadian at arm’s size then sealed one in all his nice wins when Shapovalov pushed a volley large and ended up smashing his racket into the court docket in anguish.
Nadal will meet the winner of Italian seventh seed Matteo Berrettini and Gael Monfils for a spot within the last.
(Reporting by Ian Ransom in Melbourne; Editing by Robert Birsel)
